DPRK Test-fires Two Missiles Off East Coast on 2 Jul
Lee, Minhwan
missiles off its east coast on Thursday, officials in Seoul said, just hours
after the communist state ended its talks with South Korea without progress
over their joint industrial complex.
"One was fired at 5:20 p.m. and the other at 6:00 p.m. [ 0820 and 0900 GMT]
from Sinsang-ni" near the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, South Korean
defense ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.
Other officials, who declined to be named, said the missiles appeared to be
anti-ship ones.
The firing is the latest military step North Korea has taken since the U.N.
Security Council passed a resolution bolstering sanctions on the communist
state for its May 25 nuclear test.
Under the resolution, North Korea is banned from developing and testing
missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.
It also comes as a North Korean freighter suspected of carrying such
material has reportedly changed course after being tracked by a U.S. Navy
destroyer.
Earlier Thursday, working-level talks between North and South Korea over
their joint factory park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong
[Kaeso'ng] ended without an agreement or a date for another round.
The park is the last surviving cross-border venture born out of the first
summit between South and North Korean leaders in 2000, housing over 100
South Korean firms employing 40,000 North Koreans.
Tourism projects that took South Koreans to historic and scenic spots in
Kaesong [Kaeso'ng] were suspended last year amid fraying political ties
between the two countries that remain technically at war.
South and North Korea fought the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce
rather than a peace treaty.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and has been said for
weeks to be preparing to test-fly an intercontinental ballistic missile from
its west coast